Our Friday in Aberdeen was mostly spent wandering round the shops. We had hoped to visit the Art Gallery but it was closed for renovation. However we did spot some statues which had been dressed up for some kind of art festival.

After a lot of shopping and walking, we (well mostly me!) wanted to enjoy some tea and cake, so we headed to Cup Tea Salon and Cafe. Again, recommended by Foodie Quine in her foodie guide to Aberdeen, this looked a must-try place.

Unfortunately I forgot to take a snap of the cakes before they were devoured (Carrot Cake for me, Cookie Dough cheesecake for Mr B in case you were wondering)! However I definitely wanted you to see my Raspberry and Pomegranate iced tea. The hot tea brews until the timer is empty, then I just had to simply pour the brewed tea over ice and enjoy. It looks like a science experiment but it was immense fun to pour and drink!

Once we had returned home with our purchases, got ready and recharged (ie watched Pointless!) we headed out again for our evening.

As I said in Friday’s post, we had booked this break only a few days previously as a last minute break. I realised after booking our accommodation was that we would be in town for the pre-festival build up for North Hop Aberdeen. We attended the first North Hop festival in Inverness last year, and it was a great night out. We wouldn’t have been able to attend the main Aberdeen sessions last weekend but we were around for the pre-launch events at Brewdog and at the Tippling House (where we had already booked our evening meal) on the Friday night.

Our first stop was Brewdog, where we just managed to squeeze ourselves a seat. Mr B was in his element and sampled a flight of 1/3 samples of different brews. There was some jazz in the background and it was a really relaxed way to start our evening. While I’m not that into craft beer, I was pleased to see that they had some more interesting soft drink options than the usual Coke/Sprite etc. I had never tasted Fritz-kola before but it was really delicious – not as fizzy and a much more deeper cola flavour, it tasted like gummy cola bottle sweeties!

Our next stop was The Tippling House. (Note it is easy to walk straight past the entrance!)

They had a pre North Hop event on too – a Tap Takeover by the Drygate Brewery. I tried a Vermillion in the Rose cocktail; Rose-infused Hayman’s London Dry Gin, Fresh Lemon, TTH Rhubarb/Verbena Syrup & Sparkling Pignoletto. It was delicate and delicious!

The options for dinner are varied, there are big plate meals but the bar snacks were recommended, as were the sharing platters, so we opted for a meat sharing platter with a couple of bar snacks added on.

The outstanding star of the show for us was the Beef Croquettes. They were excellent – the beef slow cooked and creamy within the breaded case. On we went to Rye and Soda for our final stop. I finished the night with a Hot Chocolate and Mr B went for Black Isle Blonde with a dram of Springburn whisky. A nice quiet place to end the night, with a big range of ales on tap, gins and whiskies.

As you can probably tell, there was definitely a theme of visiting places that had an American style over our few days in Aberdeen. We rated all of the above as places that we’d return to again!

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Hello!

I'm Susan and welcome to Mess in the Ness - a collection of foodie, lifestyle and travel posts. Stay and have a look around my little corner of Scotland! To find out more about me and this blog, check out my
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